Besides a hybrid drive system, a hybrid vehicle comprises a transmission connected between the hybrid drive and a drive output, the transmission preferably being an automatic or automated manual transmission. Co-operating with the transmission is a driver-operated element which can be made, for example, as a rotating drive switch, or a drive switch keyboard or a selector lever. Such a driver-operated element has several conditions that can be selected by a driver, each of which is associated with driving ranges or one of several gear groups for the operation of the transmission. Until now motor vehicles have been known from the prior art, whose driver-operated elements can assume conditions associated with the driving ranges D (Drive), R (Reverse) and N (Neutral). In addition driver-operated elements are known, which have further conditions with which driving ranges are associated, such as the driving ranges 1, 2 and 3, each of which comprises some part of the group of gears available in driving range D.
In hybrid vehicles intended to be operated with minimal fuel consumption and also harmful substance emissions, it can be provided that the hybrid function mode of the hybrid drive can be selected deliberately by a driver of the motor vehicle. Such hybrid function modes, for example, may be those of “combustion engine off”, “zero-emission drive” or “zero-emission drive prepare”, which can be activated by a driver for example for emission-free driving in a pedestrian zone.
Another hybrid function mode can be that of “combustion engine permanently on” which, for example, can be activated by a driver if the motor vehicle has to drive up a long slope. Other hybrid function modes that a driver can select may be those of “charge energy accumulator”, “discharge energy accumulator” and “suppress engine start/stop”, which the driver should be able to activate manually in certain conditions of the motor vehicle. For each hybrid function mode that can be activated by a driver an interface to the driver must be prepared, which enables the driver to activate or deactivate the respective hybrid function modes manually. This increases the number of operating elements that have to be integrated in an instrument panel of a motor vehicle as well as the vehicle's wiring complexity. This is disadvantageous from the standpoints of both clarity and costs.